Stories in sculptures

The Hoysaleshwara temple depicts events from important scriptures such as Shiva Purana, Bhagavatha Purana, and Devi Mahatmyam.

The panel below shows Krishna, in his divine form, lifting Govardhana mountain on his left little finger. The story behind the sculpture is thus: The inhabitants of Brij or Vrindavan, where Krishna is growing up, worshipped Indra, the god of thunder and storms. They held grand festivities in honour of Indra for providing timely rains for their prosperity. However, Krishna convinced the citizens of Brij to start worshipping the Govardhana mountain instead of Indra. He argued that the hill provided showers for Vrindavan and not Indra. Indra was enraged when the people of Brij stopped worshipping him, causing an incessant rainfall on the land causing severe floods. While people were devastated, Krishna lifted the Govardhana mountain on his little finger and provided shelter for people and animals from the torrential rains. Indra, repentant and in awe of Krishna's prowess, stopped the deluge.

The sculpture realistically represents the mountain and the forest life with a monkey climbing a tree, a lion entering a cave, and a hunter hunting his prey.

This sculpture of Ugra Narasimha, with claws for hands, is seen tearing apart the Asura King Hiranyakashipu, the father of Prahlada, a devotee of Vishnu. However, HIranyakashipu, a sworn enemy of all Gods, including Vishnu, is angered by his son's devotion to Vishnu. To protect Prahlada from his own father's cruel punishments, Vishnu takes the form of Narasimha - half-man and half-lion and kills the demon. Hiranyakashipu has a boon that he cannot be killed indoors or outdoors. The demon's boon also entailed that he can neither be killed during the day nor at night, neither in space nor on the ground, by neither man nor an animal, and the weapon used to kill him cannot be inanimate. This exciting story from Bhagavatha details that to kill the demon despite the boon, Vishnu takes the form of half-man and half-lion and kills him at dusk, on a threshold, holding him on his lap with his claws.

Quoting from Srimad Bhagavatam, 7.8.17

“To prove that the statement of his devotee Prahlada was substantial - in other words, to prove that the Supreme Lord is present everywhere, even within the pillar of an assembly hall - the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari, exhibited a wonderful form never before seen. The form was neither that of a man nor that of a lion. Thus the Lord appeared in his wonderful form in the assembly hall”.

The wall corners are seamlessly merged with large twin sculptures. One such example is below. Here, on the right, is Varaha, the third incarnation of Vishnu, who descended to earth to kill the demon Hiranyaksha. The demon stole Mother Earth from the cosmic ocean and hid her in the primordial waters. When she cried for help, Vishnu descended to earth in the form of a boar and killed the demon Hiranyaksha in a fierce battle. Then retrieving Mother Earth on his tusks, Vishnu places her back in the universe. The slain demon is shown below Varaha’s feet.

In the Vamana incarnation of Vishnu, he measured the entire universe in three footsteps by growing to giant size from a dwarf. As Vishnu conquered the three worlds with his three footsteps - earth with his first step, heavens with the second and the underworld with the third - he got the name Trivikrama. The sculpture shows the raised leg of Vishnu encompassing the oceans, and the asura king, Mahabali is seen with folded hands at the bottom of the panel.

The sculpture below depicts Shiva slaying the elephant demon Gajasura. The sculptures of Krishna and Shiva are next to one another on a wall recess.

The story of Shiva portrayed by the sculpture is thus: Once, a demon named Nila attacked Shiva by taking the form of an elephant. Shiva retaliated by entering the elephant's body and began to dance inside. He finally killed the elephant by tearing its body apart and wearing its skin. Shiva henceforth was also called Gaja Charmabaradhara - one who wears elephant skin. This dying demon is depicted hauntingly with an open belly and bulged eyes. One can notice Shiva's sharp thumbnail tearing the skin from the tail end close to the right hind legs. Shiva is depicted with multiple arms only when he is combative.

Apasmara is the demon of ignorance. Shiva, in his dancing form called Nataraja, can be seen performing his Tandava dance on a dwarf in this sculpture. This is a popular image found in many Shiva temples. The purpose of the story is to indicate that ignorance, represented by Apasmara, cannot be killed but only subdued. This story is also known to represent the fact that ignorance can be overcome with knowledge. Many sculptures represent this story in the Hoysaleshwara temple of Halebeedu.

The relief below depicts the episode from the Ramayana known as Ravananugraha, when Ravana tried to lift Mount Kailash. This episode is prevalent in many Hoysala temples.

The story behind this sculpture is thus: After defeating his half-brother Kubera and looting his capital city Alaka, the demon king Ravana, then still called Dashanana, headed back to Lanka (Dashanana translates to one with ten heads). While riding on the plane Pushpak Vimana, the flying chariot that he stole from Kubera, Dashanana came across a mysterious mountain over which he could not fly over. After trying to fly over it and failing many times, the demon King noticed a bull-shaped figure. The bull was Nandi, Lord Shiva’s devotee and his mount, and the mountain was Kailash, the home of Shiva.

Ravana was egoistic with his power, especially after his recent victory over Kubera, and hurled insults at Nandi about the mount Kailash and Shiva. Enraged at this arrogance, Nandi cursed Ravana that his downfall would be at the hands of monkeys. Further angered, Ravana started lifting the entire Kailasa mountain. At that time, Shiva was meditating, and the violent shaking of the mountain snapped him out of his trance.

Being the omniscient One, Shiva realized the cause of the disturbance and decided to crush Ravana’s arrogance. Shiva then pressed the mountain onto the demon king with his big toe. Trapped underneath the hill, Dashanana cried in pain. Then advised by his ministers, to appease Shiva, Ravana began singing the Shiva Tandava Stotram in praise of Shiva. The belief is that Ravana composed the entire Shiva Tandava Stotra at that moment and sang it for thousand years. Then Lord Shiva came down and blessed Ravana and gave him the name Ravana – the who cried. To reward his devotion, Shiva also gave Ravana a unique weapon, Chandrahaas, or a sickle.

The famous story of Durga killing the buffalo-demon Mahishasura is depicted in this sculpture. Mahishasura was a buffalo Asura (Demon) in Hinduism. He was known as a deceitful demon who pursued his evil ways by shape-shifting. Mahishasura was the son of Mahishi (Buffalo) and the great-grandson of Sage Kashyapa. He was ultimately killed by Goddess Durga - after which she gained the epithet Mahishasuramardini (Slayer of Mahishasura). The Navaratri (Nine Nights) festival eulogizes this battle between Mahishasura and Durga, culminating in Vijaya Dasami, a celebration of his ultimate defeat.

A buffalo can be seen writhing under the feet of the goddess in this sculpture.